Big, beautiful, powerful, muscular, fast, smooth, mysterious, and quiet. No, I’m not describing myself for once (crickets), I’m talking about this drop-dead gorgeous 1969 Mercury Marauder X-100. The seller has this muscular luxobeast posted here on craigslist in Long Beach, California and they have an asking price of $14,500 or best offer listed. Thanks to Pat L. for sending in this tip!
Mercury made the Marauder beginning in 1963 and then they went away for a while after the 1965 model year. They came back as a second-generation Marauder in 1969 for just two years, ending in 1970. It was during this short two-year period of time when the X-100 was made. Muscle cars at the time were more about power than posh but Mercury executives thought there could be room for a luxury car with the power chops to match. The Marauder came back for the 2003 and 2004 model years with another winner, albeit a four-door sedan so quite different looking, but a future collectible without question.
There’s the view. That rear 3/4 angle is the money shot with the Marauder X-100. The flat black rear is more often than not seen on these cars but it wasn’t on all of them – it was standard but could be deleted. I love it and would have to have that feature if (when) I own one. The rear wheel skirts were standard on the X-100 and optional on the standard Marauder, but some owners took them off.
As expected, a beautiful, luxurious interior was standard and this car looks almost like new inside and out. The interior appears to be in amazing condition other than what appears to be a single crack in the padded dash top. The seller says that this car has 80,000 miles on it and it looks about as nice as I can imagine a 52-year-old car being. The trunk isn’t quite as finished as I would have expected but it would be easy enough to remedy that if a person cared at all about such a thing.
Just over 5,600 Mercury Marauder X-100s were made for 1969 and they all came standard with a 429 cubic-inch V8 and a four-barrel which put out 360 horsepower and 480 lb-ft of torque. Yes, it will burn through a set of rear tires quicker than normal if a person wanted to do that. This looks like an incredibly nice example of a fairly rare car to see today. Have any of you owned a Marauder X-100?
I did see one at a show in St. Pete a couple of years ago, and it is one baaad looking machine. I’d love to have one.
Good write-up Scotty. Not much description provided by the seller, but the pictures show the car to be in good shape. I agree with Rex, this is a baaad looking car with tons of presence.
We had a lady who drove one of these when I worked at Safeway.
I always thought they were really cool for a big car.I’m pretty sure that
gas mileage is in the single digits.
You would be surprised at mileage on these older cars, if you kept your foot off the pedal and didn’t open the secondary’s on the carb they could get fair gas mileage.
My ’70 Caprice with a 413 Chevy (.060 over) gets 20+mpg at 65-70mph. I built the engine, carb and dizzy for peak torque before 4500rpm. Works great with the 2.56 gears. Car only weighs about 4050lbs wet.
On the other hand, it gets about 12mpg in town…..
Back when a car was a CAR!
Back when a car was a boat… which I happen to love…
That is one good looking car and seeing it sent me down the internet rabbit hole in order to find out more.
According to Hagerty, the two tone, called “Sport Tone” didn’t have to be black. They show one in two tone red. Quite a handsome combo.
The X100 package ($700) came with bucket seats and a console as standard. I guess you could default to a 50/50 bench seat as this car shows.
Thanks Scotty. Now I have another car to add to my already lengthy list of cars to own someday.
I had the Maroon 69 X100 with White leather interior bench seat. INCREDIBLE CAR and wish I could find it
It was bought from Preston Lincoln Mercury in Nashville Tennessee.
I’m mainly a GM guy but I absolutely love this thing! Too bad it doesn’t have buckets and a console. This ranks right up there with the ‘70 Plymouth Sport Fury on the list of “big muscle” I’d like to own some day. Looks like someone is going to get an incredibly good deal on this one. Gorgeous car!
That thing is gorgeous!
I loved those late 60’s full size performance cars, in particular the 69-70 Marauder X100, the 70-71 Sport Fury GT and the 68-69 Impala SS427. There was just something so audacious about these big, heavy, luxurious full size machines, with big high horse engines, factory mag or rally wheels, red line or white lettered tires, stripes or black out paint, and hood scoops or power bulges, that were often loaded with luxury options, but could still turn a 16 second (or quicker) quarter mile time.
Even as a 15-16 year old kid in 69-70, I knew these big performance sedans were the end of an era, and something to be cherished.
What do you call a luxury car with a muscle car engine? I love them too, and my choice would be a bucket seat ’70 Toronado GT w/400 hp. Good for 15.7 in the 1/4.
My favorite Toronado of them all!
That car has a sinister look to it. Kind of like a newer Christine if you will. Better love her or she will eat your heart out!
It reminds me of MobRat sled from like Godfather or the like
I don’t like the fitment of the rear bumper, looks like it may have taken a light hit. Otherwise, a beautiful machine, Frank Cannon would be salivating.
Looks like it was towed by the back in sling cradle without proper support…
We had a name for these cars when we were kids in high school —— boat anchors hahaha
The curve of the rear bar is correct
Steve McGarrett of Hawaii Five-Oh drove a black Marquis.
Frank Cannon was a Lincoln Mark IV guy.
Good thing I live in the Midwest. I would buy this in a heartbeat…
We had a 77 marquis 2-door with a 400. Not quite a hot rod, but that series the 2-doors have lower roof, and were not that common. Was wife’s car, and she loved it. Got decent mileage for a big car–15 I think.
My dad ordered a regular Marauder in 1969…..forest green on forest green…very “in” color at the time…had the standard 390 two barrel. Looked like nothing else on the road. Spent many a trip in that green vinyl backseat. Would love to own the X-100 version at some point, but I need the buckets and console version with a horseshoe shifter. Dad traded in a 1963 Galaxie XL fastback on the Marauder…..would like one of those one day as well.
There’s a convertible for sale in central NY, looks good from what I’ve seen but haven’t had a chance to take a good look at it or see the asking price.
I always thought that this would have been the perfect car (in Black, of course!) for Steve McGarrett/Hawaii 5-0. It just wouldn’t have been the typical public servant/cop car, though, LOL!! I liked these from the very first time that I saw one! :-)
The cops in Hawaii used to (maybe still do?) drive their own PERSONAL cars set up with all the required emergency equipment! One of my friends was on the Kitty Hawk BITD and swore he was pulled over in Honolulu by an officer driving a ‘69 El Camino with a blower on its 427..
This car has a major wow factor of its own. Very cool.
I was stationed over there (’89-’92) & there was an officer that had a dark blue ’69 Mustang. Don’t know what he had under the hood but it flew!!!
A South Jersey guy owns a beautiful Blue one that he drives and shows regularly. Outstanding vehicle. I temporarily owned a 1964 Mercury Marauder when I was sixteen (long/short story) and have owned a 2003 Marauder since July 2019. Love it to the point that I use it as my Daily Driver and drive it more than my two Shelbys. My mechanic says it handles like his 2002 Corvette.
Forgot! That’s a beautiful car and worth the price in my opinion.
These were fords mercury’s biggest “fastback” model cars made in the late 60s so it still had the power to move a land yacht with good performance. I would prefer to have it with the factory buckets and console shifter that looked like you were throttling up a jet plane. Another nice feature is the rare cast wheels that were 1st seen on 68 cougar xr7 gts!
I’m In Lust
Marauder is just simply the greatest name of all time for a heavyweight Muscle-ish car,and I will add one to the fleet on that basis alone .I need the console shift though,just like the Riv boat tail on my list.This seems to be a bit of a deal,a couple have cracked $30k at BaT iirc.
When I was a kid, my neighbor had one of these in red. He replaced the mufflers with thrust glass packs, you could here him blocks away.
Nice! Wonder if seller knows if this X-100 has a traction lock rear end and the ratio.
I actually owned a Marauder, although it was not the X-100, and it had a 390 2V, that had about 100 hp less the 429’s 360hp. It was baby blue and the turn signal panel was blue. White interior that would hold 6 men who weighed 250 pounds apiece. The fuel gauge didn’t work, so it was guess work on how much gas I had. Living in Tucson, my friends decided that we should go two step dancing and I should drive. Long story short we pushed this 4300 pound car past 2 County Sherifs and didnt say a word to them. We didn’t even look at them, they caught up to us and gave us a ride. I loved this car because nobody else had one and it never let me down for 4 years. I still miss it
…
Surprisingly under optioned for such a luxurious car, bare bones cars were in abundance in the mid size line up, but i figured this car for power windows, seats, am/fm and 8 track somewhere
I wouldn’t call this bare bones by any means! It has AC, and “twin comfort lounge seats” and at least the driver’s side is power. (The seller doesn’t specify.) Not to mention Auto trans., power steering and brakes. There are people who prefer roll up windows to power –less problems. However, I agree with the poster that earlier thought the rear bumper looked wrong. It does seem to be curved wrong, as if it was gently pushed in too much in the center. I think that might be corrected without much difficulty. Still there is SO much right with this car, especially the price! What a find!
Righteous and wearing a five o’clock shadow, they just don’t make cars like this anymore. Back then maybe the only shocking thing about it was the all new 429 V8, a completely different engine from the tried and true FE.
In 1969, with all the wild rides coming off the showroom floor this X100 fit right in, possibly on the conservative side really.
Nice, really nice ride here.
I had a yellow one with the blackout treatment and it was a stunner. Interesting note, the “Magstar” wheels were very similar to the ones offered on 1967 Shelby Mustangs. However, the X-100 version of the wheels had a larger backing flange to house the larger wheel bolt pattern. Very rare set of wheels.
Bought a ’69 X-100 with black vinyl roof and no black matte trunk treatment, all turquoise. Buckets in white vinyl tuck and roll with the u handle shifter in console. Bulletproof, reliable, comfortable and surprisingly sure footed for a sumo-class luxo cruiser. Got it with 125k (and a case of carpenter ants) and sold it with 175k or so. Took two friends one time and went on a lap of Oregon one weekend and covered 1237 miles in 24 hours with 7 hours of sleep on Steens Mountain. Average speed was over 70 mph and mostly on two lane blacktop and gravel back roads. Mileage averaged 12-14 on regular. Eugene – Steen’s Mountain – Pendleton – Mt.Hood – Eugene. Tried to check top speed once with a carload of college friends (yeah, I cringe today) and backed off when a piece of windshield trim flew off at 110. Heavy, Fast, 429 never seemed overworked. Highly recommended if you like this type of rig.
It said in the add trade for other classics . These cars are not performance cars they were designed for the upper class richer people who liked the power and didnt care of the price of fuel or the car its self for that matter. Will trade for a screaming GTO performance car.
I really enjoyed the sloped lines of these big luxury sleds. They have really nice interiors for the day and you could take 6 of you friends with you!
If you look carefully at the rear fender skirts they don’t fit well. That’s usually because the rear quarters rot where they mate. The bottom of the left rear quarter looks a little suspect. If I was interested in the car I’d ask for more detailed pictures. The reason the trunk looks “unfinished” (the carpet is missing) is most likely on purpose to show the trunk area is rust free.
I love big bodied cars with plenty of HP! In my college years I had a ’75 Caprice classic 4dr. I dropped in a “mild” BBC turbo350 with a kit and ran that sleeping baby (silver/black vinyl top with wide white walls, spoked hubcaps and column shift) to many dismayed challengers. One comes to mind, I approached a Grand National at the light on Deer Park Ave on Long Island, launched a little and he agreed. I toasted him. Him and his buddies were baffled and demanded I pop the hood. I laughed and let them check it out. Those were the days. Big and beautiful boats! Although this is a nice appearing beauty, upon blowing up the drivers side pic, you’ll see some waves on that rear. Boats go on waves, not waves on boats. Nice and cool though. Just some food for thought.
Should be XL-100. I have the big car fetish and this one checks a lot of boxes.
One of my all time favorites…
$14,500 seems like a bargain for this beauty.
I remember you could get a XL- 100 in a very bright orange. World’s biggest, fastest pumpkin.
Nice car, can’t say that I’m impartial. This one’s mine. You could get a vinyl top as a delete option. You really had to get the bucket seats with console
It’s just pure style
I owned a 69 Mercury Marquis Brougham.
Was very powerful & very fun. Black vinyl top, yellow body. I enjoyed it when I put it in S for slide!!!
Can you buy anything this nice AND this cool for $14k? I think not.
That Red Mercury is one Bad A** Lookin Ride!
You could take it on a boulevard cruise all night and go across country in style
This car is great just the way it is. If you had giga-bucks to spend I could see a Jon Kaase BOSS 9 engine, 10 speed auto or 6 speed manual, a long skinny computer screen in the stock dash openings for the gauges and 17″ versions of the Shelby Proto Magnums that are on it now. No hood scoops or wings.
And a 2003-up Crown Vic front suspension.
Maybe get two of these cars and implant the all new Ford 7.3 445G engine in one. G as in Godzilla
The 1969-1970 Marauder X100 is my favorite Mercury of all. Make mine red with the matte black “sport tone” rear deck lid. Buckets and console are a must.
Uncle had one of these back in the day before I knew what it was. Sat in his garage all thru the 80s, and all of a sudden it was gone. Gave it away. These are awesome cars.